From using fruit peel in chutneys and dehydrating husks, food waste is obviously a priority, though Mark, who previously worked at Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s River Cottage, is realistic about some of the tougher challenges and readily admits that they, too, are learning. Their pandemic move from a la carte to a tasting menu has allowed them to better manage quantities, he says, while they also pay staff above the Living Wage, allowing them to ditch a service charge (it does, of course, nudge up menu prices, but Mark tells us most customers are understanding when he explains the reasoning). Where customers still tip, it’s donated to food charities. It’s clear he hopes The Ethicurean can be a model for future restaurants. 

Mark was delighted with the green star, but says that to drive forward real change, it needs, over time, to become as esteemed as the red stars. In the meantime, chefs should question their choices, rethink habits and confront sticking points, even if that means limiting what’s served (he gives farmed tuna and salmon as examples, while many restaurants are replacing meat options with plant-based alternatives). He doesn’t speak about sustainability, instead preferring to focus on responsible choices. ‘Various parts of how we live are completely unsustainable and I think that’s the case with restaurants,’ he says. ‘We shouldn’t try to sustain things that are damaging. For me, it’s about being responsible in the choices I make as a business owner, while recognising that there are things we have to do, that currently aren't the best solution. If we get restaurants following that conscious questioning of old norms and trying to be more responsible, then the industry will move more quickly in the right direction.’

The desire to not only meet standards but set new ones is shared by Chantelle Nicholson, whose Mayfair restaurant Apricity was awarded a green star this year. Her plant-based and free-from cooking had already earned her a reputation as one of the country’s most forward-thinking chefs, but it was cemented by the accolade, which Chantelle says has bolstered their confidence. ‘It was an affirmation of what we have been doing,’ she nods. ‘At times it can be challenging, but it is the motivation to keep going.’ Though the rich produce of and a childhood in New Zealand inspired her mindset, she is now practising it in somewhat more urban surroundings. Though that presents challenges (a farm, or even garden, would be wonderful, she laughs), it shows what’s possible.

At Apricity, Chantelle says they analyse all their decisions, from the food they serve to how they wash their dishes and even how the team spends its time. It’s a low-waste restaurant with a zero-waste approach to cooking, and small-scale farmers and locally foraged ingredients are key to that. There’s a tasting menu celebrating British vegetables, regeneratively farmed meat and sustainably caught fish, as well as a list of low intervention wines. Service, too, is included in the menu prices. ‘It’s very much about giving more than you take,’ she summarises. ‘For me it’s about trying to make things easier for everybody else, finding ways of doing things and establishing a new norm.’

Down in Cornwall, chef Dan Cox has created what he hopes can be a blueprint for the future of UK farming at his Crocadon farm in St Mellion. After working in Michelin-starred restaurants, including Simon Rogan's Fera at Claridges and L'Enclume, in 2017 he took on the 120-acre organic farm, and has spent the last six years rearing heritage breeds and cultivating the land, bringing his hyper-seasonal, regenerative farming ethos to life. In January this year, he opened Crocadon, his debut restaurant and the culinary manifestation of that mindset, and earned his green star just weeks later. It represents the team’s work to create a ‘full circle farming concept with a restaurant at its heart’, he says, adding that it is just the beginning, with more plans to ‘further our connection between food and agriculture’.

Soil health is a key component of his vision (he previously told us to view it as a bank account: ‘If you continue to extract by growing things, you’re extracting all of that nutrition, so the more we can put back in, the better’). Its microbial life is boosted with the likes of compost teas and manure, while the site’s crop diversity enhances the soil. Where possible, food waste is channelled into composting and the team saves up bones and meat used for stocks and sauces, dries them out in an AGA and burns them with coppice wood into an ash before using them in a pottery glaze. 

Dan hopes the green star will encourage restaurants, including those with red stars, to strive for the additional accolade, inspiring a shared awareness and education where restaurants learn from each other. 'If all other award bodies and guides focused on sustainability it would become the norm for all restaurants to take sustainability seriously,' he says. 'There is so much toxicity and destructive agriculture within our industry and all it takes is for chefs to start asking the right questions. Change can be made overnight, each time an order is placed with a supplier it's a chance to change things for the better.'

Though the chefs we’ve spoken to no doubt have plenty in common, it's their shared passion that sticks out. It's clear that sustainability isn’t something they just talk about, or understand on a surface level – they practise it every day, take accountability for it and actively reconsider how they work. That, it appears, is how you earn a green star – and, more importantly, how you make real change.